Photographs

Dr. Frank S. Hargrave, as imagined.

I am ambivalent about using artificial intelligence to restore photographs. Or, more specifically, I’m concerned about manipulated photographs supplanting original images and further blurring the line between reality and misinformation. However, the allure of AI-enhanced images is strong, as I often contend with blurry, poorly lit photographs in unnatural sepia or black-and-white tones. Photographs whose condition sometimes exacerbates the distance between us and our ancestors.

I have been experimenting with ChatGPT lately, feeding it queries and images to be restored and colorized. The results are somewhat haphazard, with many images weird and off-putting. Other times, the images are breathtakingly sharp and … alive. Black Wide-Awake exists to resurrect forgotten lives, and I believe these images are valuable to help us connect with the men and women we read about in these posts. From time to time, I’ll share the better ones here, clearly marked as AI-generated. Let me know what you think about them.

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Dr. Frank S. Hargrave (1881-1942), physician and hospital founder, New Jersey state assemblyman.

McGirt is champion canner.

Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 16 September 1944.

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In the 1928 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: McGirt Archie (c; Archie) lab 821 Stantonsburg

In the 1930 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: farm laborer Archie McGirt, 35; wife Pearl, 28; children John, 13, Lillian, 11, and Belton, 7; and roomer Georgia Souther, 29.

In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: Archie McGirt, 52, fertilizer plant laborer; wife Pearl, 47, tobacco factory laborer; son John, 23, fertilizer plant laborer; daughter Lillian Simms, 21, tobacco factory laborer; son Belton [McGirt], 19, delivery boy for grocery store; [grandson] Walter, 5; and son-in-law Allen Simms, 25, cement finisher for contractor.

In the 1950 census of Wilson, Wilson County: Archie McGirt, 58; wife Pearl P., 54; and son James, 15; and grandchildren Loretta, 8, and Bobby, newborn.

Pearlette McGirt died 19 July 1970 in Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was born 25 October 1902 to Ace Patterson and Dora McCray; was married to Archie McGirt; and lived at 803 South Ward Boulevard. Informant was Lillian McGirt Simms, 901 Stantonsburg Street.

Wildest dreams.

We are our ancestors’ wildest dreams.

Specifically, Vicey Artis and Solomon Williams‘.

I am descended from their son Adam T. Artis, and Teresa Artis Neal from their son Richard Artis. I followed Teresa from Chapel Hill to Cambridge, and here we are this past weekend at Harvard Law School’s Celebration of Black Alumni.

Photo by Lisa Y. Henderson, September 2025.

Rev. Bryant P. Coward, as imagined.

I am ambivalent about using artificial intelligence to restore photographs. Or, more specifically, I’m concerned about manipulated photographs supplanting original images and further blurring the line between reality and misinformation. However, the allure of AI-enhanced images is strong, as I often contend with blurry, poorly lit photographs in unnatural sepia or black-and-white tones. Photographs whose condition sometimes exacerbates the distance between us and our ancestors.

I have been experimenting with ChatGPT lately, feeding it queries and images to be restored and colorized. The results are somewhat haphazard, with many images weird and off-putting. Other times, the images are breathtakingly sharp and … alive. Black Wide-Awake exists to resurrect forgotten lives, and I believe these images are valuable to help us connect with the men and women we read about in these posts. From time to time, I’ll share the better ones here, clearly marked as AI-generated. Let me know what you think about them.

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Rev. Bryant P. Coward (1864-1940), A.M.E. Zion minister and presiding elder.

A celebration, an affirmation.

A few weeks after I started curating Black Wide-Awake in October 2015, I discovered the obituary of Herbert O. Reid, a native of Wilson, “a leading civil rights lawyer who participated in several landmark cases that helped dismantle racial segregation in public facilities,” long-time advisor to Washington, D.C., mayor Marion Barry — and graduate of Harvard Law School in the class of 1945.

And there I was thinking I was first.

It wasn’t a hubristic assumption. I had never heard of another, and surely I would have, right? 

I’m in Cambridge this weekend, basking in the marvelous sunshine that is the Celebration of Black Alumni. It’s only the fifth such event; the first was in 2000, and I hadn’t been to any before now. Yesterday’s morning plenary session featured the dean of Howard University Law School, Roger Fairfax, who paid homage to the seven Harvard Law-educated deans who had preceded him. Herbert O. Reid, of course, was among them. 

Twice this weekend, speakers have invoked a version of Deuteronomy 6:10-12 — “We all drink from wells we did not dig, and sit in the shade of trees we did not plant.” Somewhere in the 41 years between his departure and my arrival on Massachusetts Avenue, Herbert Reid‘s memory was lost in his own hometown. I drank from his well, sat in his shade, and did not know him.

The Celebration of Black Alumni reconnected me with friends and classmates I haven’t seen in decades. It affirmed me in ways I had not thought I needed affirming, not least in my purpose to reclaim our heroes and their stories. We remember Herbert Ordre Reid, now and always.

Howell and Crawford serve as recreational hostesses.

Washington (D.C.) Afro-American, 29 September 1945.

Recreational hostesses were civilian women who served with the American Red Cross or the United States Army’s Special Services to provide entertainment and wholesome companionship for soldiers. Nicknamed “Donut Dollies,” they often traveled military bases in mobile units delivering coffee, doughnuts, music, and conversation.

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  • Ethel G. Howell
  • Vertist Crawford

In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 617 Green, carpenter Short W. Barnes, 60; wife Francis, 62; son-in-law Clarence A. Crawford, 28, brickmason; daughter Maggie L., 26; and grandchildren Verest A., 2, and Clarence A., Jr., 9 months.

In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: carpenter Short W. Barnes, 70, wife Francis, 71, daughter Maggie Crawford, 36, son-in-law Clarance Crawford, 39, and their children Verda, 13, Clarance, 10, and Annie, 8.

In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 617 Green, carpenter Short W. Barnes, 80; daughter Maggie Crawford, 46, and grandchildren Vertist, 22, truck driver Clarance, 20, and Annie F., 18.

On 29 May 1952, the list of outbound passengers aboard the USNS General Alexander M. Patch included:

U.S. Departing Passenger and Crew Lists 1914-1966, http://www.ancestry.com.

The obituary of Rosa Lee Kittrell Williams of Nashville, Tennessee.

The Tennesseean (Nashville, Va.), December 1981.

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In the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: bricklayer William Kittrell, 36; wife Mary, 30; and daughter Rosa L., 4.

In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 637 Green, brickmason William H. Kittrell, 45; wife Mary, 42; and daughter Rosa L., 14.

In the 1925 and 1928 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directories: Kittrell Rosa L (c) student h 708 E Green

In the 1938 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Kittrell Rosa L (c) school tchr h 708 E Green

In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: Julas B. Highsmith, 60, schoolteacher; wife Maggie, 45; niece Ethel Cowan, 19; and boarders Idella McCreary, 27, schoolteacher; Matthew S. Branch, 44, schoolteacher; and Ros L. Kittrell, 24, schoolteacher.

On 6 June 1930, Malcolm D. Williams, 24, of Warsaw, N.C., son of Holley and Martha Williams, married Rosa Lee Kittrell, 24, daughter of Wm. and Mary Kittrell, at 708 Green Street, Wilson. William Hines applied for the license, and Presbyterian minister J.T. Douglas performed the ceremony in the presence of W.H. Kittrell, Mary Kittrell, and H.D. Douglas.

In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 6xx Green, owned and valued at $3500, Dr. B.O. Barnes, 38, medical doctor; wife Flossie H., 34; and children Helen N., 6, and John H., 3; also, renting at $15/month; teacher M.D. Williams, 30; wife Rosa L., 33,  teacher; daughter Frances E., 9; mother Martha E., 70; and Opie H. Williams, 48, teacher.

In the 1950 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 703 Green, Malcolm Williams, 40, supervisor of city public schools; wife Rosa L., 43, “teacher (English)” in city public schools; father-in-law William Kittrell, 79, widower; and lodger Cecil C. Clinton, 26, born in Alabama, primary school teacher.